I’m going to talk a little bit today about smoking versus non-smoking in terms of your life insurance. Smoking can have a really big impact in terms of your life insurance premiums. Some companies on a term insurance policy will charge up to three times as much for a smoker versus what they charge for a non-smoker. It’s something you’re really going to want to understand. You are going to want to understand the definition within the different life insurance companies. Most companies ...

 I’m going to talk a little bit today about a question I got on how you can use a whole life insurance policy to help with your retirement. A whole life policy generally allows you to build a cash value in addition to the insurance. This cash value is growing in a tax shelter basis, so some people will use that cash value to supplement their retirement income. That person will want to make sure they are taking advantage of things like RRSPs and tax-free savings accounts, if it fits ...

The world today is not the same as it was 30 years ago. That is why some of the questions insurance clients are asking deal with the realities of this complicated world. One of these questions relates to life insurance and terrorism, and how insurance companies treat these cases. In fact, there are several scenarios, and it is important to understand all of them. Also, it is important to understand that, while some companies deal with this topic differently than others, the key principles ...

I’m going to talk a little bit now about revocable versus irrevocable beneficiaries. Most life insurance policies have a revocable beneficiary, meaning you can change the beneficiary. You choose who you want to be your beneficiary: if you have a spouse as your beneficiary and you want to change that down the road, you can change that; if you have a child as a beneficiary and you want to change that, you have that same option; or a business partner, whatever the case may be. Now, an ...

I’m going to look at how mortgage life insurance compares with regular life insurance. Mortgage life insurance is generally offered through a bank or a lending institution, and essentially, it is tied to your mortgage. One of the advantages of an individual life insurance policy is that it’s not tied to your mortgage. The coverage is portable; you can take it with you if you sell your home, and you choose your own beneficiary. You essentially own the coverage, and you can even have some ...

I’m going to talk a little bit about health insurance, how to get it, and if it makes sense. In general, health insurance will cover you if you are looking at covering things like prescription drugs, dental expenses, and those types of things. The cost can really depend on the person’s age, gender, and the amount of coverage that they need to be covered for. You are going to want to look at certain things, like if you have a group insurance plan now, you might be covered for a lot of ...

Lorne: I have Mike Liem with me from Canada Protection Plan today. We’re talking about life insurance and the different options available. One thing we get a lot of inquiries on is diabetes. It’s a very common ailment. We get a lot of inquiries from insulin diabetics, non-insulin diabetics—how can you guys help and what are some of the options for those people? Mike: It’s an excellent question, Lorne. We deal with a lot of diabetics, whether it’s type one or type two—those are the main ...

We get a lot of questions on funeral insurance and how it works. In terms of funeral insurance, you can have a policy that is owned by the funeral home. Alternatively, what I’ll talk a little bit about now is an individual policy that is owned by the policy owner but is being used to cover funeral expenses. The advantages of this are that you own the policy, you choose your benefits rate, and you can even set up some of these policies where there is an increase in death benefit to help ...

A personal story by Michael Mlotek In May 2019, my mother Helen Mlotek passed away. Being an independent insurance broker, I have done many death claims but this one was emotional. I had to deal with three insurance companies: RBC, Manulife, and Empire Life. The following is my experience. RBC The people at RBC were kind and sympathetic. Due to the amount of insurance, it was considered an express claim, meaning the paperwork was minimal. I was told they would try to pay the claim ...

Lorne: I have Mike Liem here with me from Canada Protection Plan. We’re going to talk a little about life insurance and how someone who has cancer can qualify for life insurance. I know we get a lot of inquiries on our website about people who have had cancer or whose family members have cancer. What’s the difference between going the traditional route, versus going unwritten, versus going the simplified issue route with a company like yours? Since you’re a leader in that space, if you ...